Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1885 Vyborg, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire (now Russia)

Died: 1948 Salisbury, Wiltshire, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1909

Other name/s: Carl Tancred Borenius

Biography

Art historian Tancred Borenius was born Carl Tancred Borenius on 14 July 1885 in Vyborg in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire (now Russia). He studied art history in Italy and Finland, and earned his PhD from the University of Helsinki in 1909. Shortly afterwards he moved to England, where he met the painter Roger Fry, who introduced him to members of the Bloomsbury Group. In 1913 Borenius began working as a lecturer at University College London (UCL) following Fry’s resignation. Upon the creation of the university’s History of Art Department in 1922, he became Chair and inaugural Professor of History of Art at UCL. In 1924 he compiled the catalogue of Colonel Douglas James Proby’s Collection at Elton Hall. Borenius specialised in early Italian Renaissance Art and Early Modern British Art and authored many books, including Florentine Frescoes (1930) and English Painting in the Eighteenth Century (1938). In 1924 he began working as an art advisor to Sotheby’s auction house and became a personal consultant to several aristocratic British households, including those of Queen Mary, the Earl of Harewood, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent. He also wrote reviews for art periodicals including Saturday Review in the 1920s and The Times, co-founded Apollo Magazine in 1925, and served as honorary acting editor and managing director of The Burlington Magazine from 1940–45. In 1930 he lectured on the relationship between Persian ad European painting as part of a broader series of events relating to the Persian Art Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. During the 1930s he also gave frequent public lectures at UCL, on topics including the French School of Painting in the Nineteenth Century, art in the Duchy of Burgundy, and the origins of the Venetian School of Painting. In 1933 he initiated and directed the excavations of Clarendon Palace, near Salisbury, a former Saxon hunting-box and a royal residence until Henry VIII’s reign. In 1939 he was entrusted by HRH King George VI to take the Windsor Castle Collection of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci to an exhibition in Milan. Borenius was photographed formally by Elliott & Fry (date unknown, National Portrait Gallery, London) and informally, by the society hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell, appearing in her 1936 album (National Portrait Gallery).

Apart from a successful career as an art historian and art advisor, Borenius also built a reputation for diplomatic work. He served as the secretary of Finland’s diplomatic mission following its independence from the Russian Empire in 1918, and as the country’s representative in London the following year. He became Chair of the Polish Relief Fund in 1939 which sent aid and assisted Polish refugees in Britain. He was also rumoured to have served as a spy for MI6 during the Second World War, who convinced Rudolf Hess, a leading Nazi and Deputy Führer to Hitler, to undertake a solo mission to Scotland to facilitate peace talks between Britain and Germany. Historian John Harris believed that Borenius’ trip to Geneva in 1941 was where the invitation was passed to Hess, who subsequently flew to Scotland and was then promptly arrested and imprisoned in Britain for the rest of the war, before returning to Germany to stand trial at Nuremberg in 1946 (John Harris, The History Press blog).

After the war his health began to decline and he became somewhat reclusive, retiring to Stocksbridge Cottage, Coombe Bissett, near Salisbury, Wiltshire. Tancred Borenius died in Laverstock House nursing home, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England on 2 September 1948 after a long illness. A memorial service was held at the Swedish church, Harcourt Street, London, on 14 September 1948. The Anglo-Finish History Society erected a blue plaque at his former London home, 28 Kensington Gate, in his memory.

Related books

'Rudolf Hess was 'Lured to Britain in MI6 plot'', The Daily Telegraph, 26 October 2010, p. 11
Denys Sutton, 'Tancred Borenius: Connoisseur and Clubman, Apollo, Vol. 107, April 1978, pp. 294-309
'Professor Tancred Borenius', Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 96, 8 October 1948, p. 741
'Dr. Tancred Borenius', The Manchester Guardian, 4 September 1948, p. 6
Tancred Borenius, Rembrandt: Selected Paintings (1942)
Tancred Borenius, English Painting in the Eighteenth Century (London: Art Book Club, 1938)
'Mainz Cathedral Treasure', The Times, 3 May 1932, p. 11
Tancred Borenius, 'The National Anthem', The Times, 20 February 1931, p. 15
Tancred Borenius, Florentine Frescoes (London: Jack, 1930)
Tancred Borenius, 'The Persian Art Exhibition', The Times, 2 December 1930, p. 12
Tancred Borenius, 'Hermitage Pictures', The Times, 17 November 1930, p. 13
'Florentine Frescoes. By Tancred Borenius. Book Review', The Spectator, Vol. 144, 21 June 1930, p. 1019
Tancred Borenius, English Primitives (London, 1924)
Tancred Borenius, 'A Catalogue of the Pictures at Helton Hall', The Spectator
Vol. 133, 13 September 1924, p. 366
Tancred Borenius, ‘The London Group’, Saturday Review (21 October 1922), Press Cutting Album 1917–22, The London Group Collection, Tate Archive, London, TGA 7713/11/1/1/132
'Lectures in French Art', The Times, 10 January 1919, p. 11
'New Lecturer in the History of Art', The Times, 24 December 1913

Related organisations

Apollo Magazine (co-founder)
The Burlington Magazine (editor) (editor)
University College London (lecturer and head) (lecturer and head)
University of Helsinki (student)

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Tancred Borenius art historian